Journal: Seriously? The Call of Hebrews 12:14

I keep running across passages in the Bible that offer up challenges that I haven't considered in the past.  I know that these passages have been there all along, but they simply haven't registered with me.  Now, in the midst of new circumstances and my bolstered sense of being mature in the Faith, they jump out at me like flashing traffic signals that demand attention to prevent catastrophe.  Hebrews 12:14 is one of those passages: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy …"

Seriously?  Live in peace with everybody?  Even hard-to-get-along-with people?  I just don't see how that can happen.  More than that, the call to "make every effort" comes across as overly demanding.  Why should it fall on me to make every effort to live at peace with others?  What's their responsibility in all of this?  This passage is overly altruistic.  Maybe it's a hyperbole, an intentional exaggeration.  Or maybe it's a real call to a life of holiness.

I know someone who has broken off relationships with a number of people in her life (including me) because she wanted to rid her life of negative influences.  I can see the absurdity of this ill conceived strategy for living a peaceful life.  After all, at some point or another every one of us has had a negative influence on others.  That's one of the consequences of sin.  So, even if we eliminate every sinful person in our lives, we're still stuck with our sinful selves.  Even though I see this person's actions as foolish, I still find my own ways to do much the same thing.  From avoiding people I don't get along with to neglecting relationships with people who have hurt me in some way, I've tried to fashion ways to live at peace apart from people rather than making every effort to live at peace with them.

Looking to the original Greek wording of Hebrews 12:14 doesn't give me any wiggle room on this call.  In fact, it fortifies it.  The word that is translated "make every effort" is dioko which means "to do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal." There it is.  Living at peace with all people is the goal set before followers of Christ -- the One who came to make peace between God and us.  It is something that I am called to pursue with intensity.  It should drive me with a relentless desire.  I should be so moved by the peace I have with God through His Son Jesus that I cannot be satisfied until I have made every effort, no matter how unpleasant or costly, to live at peace with every person whom God has put into my life.  Seriously.